Sunday, June 01, 2014

WooHoo! …we have a new visitor to SSBR today! We are delighted to welcome L.C. Chase who has stopped by on the blog tour for her latest novel Let It Ride. I love that music plays such a big part in the creative process for some authors and L.C. is here to share with us the music that inspired the characters and story of Let it Ride.

Let It Ride . . . To Music

By L.C. Chase

G’day everyone! Welcome to my Let It Ride blog tour and a peek into the world of rodeo cowboys. (The official schedule can be found here.) This wouldn’t be a proper tour without some prezzies, of course. Read on for giveaway details—and one very special prize! Thank you to Sinfully Sexy for hosting my cowboys, and to all of you for hopping in the saddle to ride along!

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Some people need to have total silence when they write, but me, I need music playing in the background constantly. It helps me to focus and set moods. I have a whole variety of playlists in my itunes that are categorized by mood. It’s also a great way to snap me out of a writer’s block.

Usually when writing there will be a few stand out songs that really convey the overall tone of the story to me, or a song in particular that helps me identify with a character. More than once songs have inspired entire stories. One story in my plot folder sprung from Gavin Rossdale’s The Skin I’m In. But that’s another story at a later date. ;-)

I have a pretty eclectic music collection, but while writing Let It Ride, I pretty much listened exclusively to blues and blues/rock. Here’re a few songs that stood and kind of fit the mood.

Let It Ride (Pickup Men #2) by L.C. Chase

Synopsis

Pickup man Bridge Sullivan is the kind of cowboy everyone wants—as a brother, a friend, a lover. People think he’s straight, but Bridge isn’t one for labels, and when a sexy male paramedic jumpstarts his heart, he charges in with all guns blazing.

New York City transplant Eric Palmer grew up in foster care. While he always had a roof over his head, he never felt love or a sense of belonging . . . until he joined the California rodeo circuit as a paramedic and found a band of brothers who took him in as one of their own. Now, one in particular is making Eric’s pulse race.

When things heat up between Bridge and Eric, Bridge has to prove to Eric he’s not just experimenting with the rougher sex, while Eric must overcome his fears of being unwanted and cast aside. He knows that trusting Bridge may be the key to his happy ever after, but getting in the saddle is much, much easier than learning to let it ride.

Tina’s Review

“You’re the one. The only one for me.”

I loved the first book in L.C. Chace's Pickup Men series but this one was even better. It tells the story of paramedic Eric Palmer and pick up man Bridge Sullivan. I liked those two in the first book but this time they owned my heart… hook, line, and sinker.

Bridge is such a nice guy, easy-going and laid-back, just a friend who’s game for anything. Open minded in his sexuality and attracted to Eric, he wants the paramedic with all of his heart. It doesn’t matter to him if he’s bi or gay, he accepts his attraction to Eric easily, and has the courage to approach him and tell him he's not looking for a one night stand - he wants a relationship.

“I’m not going anywhere, Eric. I told you from the very beginning I wanted you more than as just a friend with benefits, and I don’t give a shit what other people think or say or do, unless they hurt those I care about. That I won’t stand for. But there is no way I’m not going to be with you because of other people’s groundless issues. So you can get that shit out of your head right now, strip your damn clothes off, and get in my damn bed.”

Eric is openly gay and loves the companionship of his friends on the rodeo circuit. He enjoys being part of a band of brothers and for the first time, feels like he belongs. Abandoned by his own parents and in and out of foster homes since then, his childhood was anything but easy with emotional scars running deep. Eric lives with a low sense of self worth because no one has ever truly loved him and stuck by him.

So when Bridge seems to be genuinely interested in him, Eric just doesn’t have the courage to start a relationship for fear of losing his friends, something he is familiar with when lovers have left in the past. Eric tries to protect himself by not getting too close, convinced there is something wrong with him and Bridge will eventually see this. Definitely a guy who needs and deserves someone who shows him how to trust.

I loved that Bridge so easily accepts his feelings for Eric, he’s just an extraordinary guy who loves a person… not a female or male… that character trait is really well done. My poor Bridge, I suffered with him when Eric breaks his heart so badly. *sniffs* Nothing is easy when it comes to love.

“Why subject yourself to this kind of grief by dating a man when you don’t have to?”“Don’t have to?” The pitch in Bridge’s voice raised a notch, as did the color in his face. “The hell kind of bullshit is that? I have to go with my heart, and my heart is going with you. That’s where there’s no choice. You could have three eyes and green skin for all I care. Issues with same-sex relationships are society’s hang-up, not mine.”

L.C. Chase did a great job of bringing Bridge and Eric’s affinity to the page in a way that makes it feel like these two have a chance together. The story had me close to tears in places and with such hope that they could pull through. It’s one of those rare books that pulled me straight into the scene and shows how important family is. I loved the rodeo setting and the friendship between Eric, Bridge, and their friends Marty, Tripp and Kent, the characters we got to know in the first book of Pickup Men.

Let It Ride is a beautiful, heartfelt and emotional ride, a story about finding oneself and shedding the past, a story about forgiveness and second chances. It’s well written, the characters are fresh, real and interesting, the story line sweet and sexy and the plot is great, romantic, delightful, painful and heart breaking. Yeah, I admit that I’m a sucker for those kind of books! Only a broken heart can heal again, right?

I don't think it is necessary to know book one to enjoy Let It Ride, even though it would be a shame not to read it. Recommended for all the M/M readers out there who love hot cowboys and rodeos and don’t fear a little heartbreak.

Purchase Links

Series Reading Order

About L.C. Chase

Cover artist by day, author by night, L.C. Chase is a hopeless romantic and adventure seeker. After a decade of traveling three continents, she now calls the Canadian West Coast home. When not writing sensual tales of beautiful men falling love, she can be found designing book covers with said beautiful men, drawing, horseback riding, or hiking the trails with her goofy four-legged roommate.

L.C. is a 2014 Lambda Literary Award Finalist for Pickup Men; a 2013 EPIC eBook Awards Finalist for Long Tall Drink; and a 2013-2014 Ariana eBook Cover Art Awards Finalist. She also won an honorable mention in the 2012 Rainbow Awards for Riding with Heaven.

You can find out more about L.C., story extras, works in progress, and cover designs below…

Giveaway

COWBOYS IN PIXELS: One ebook copy of any title in my backlist. Open to worldwide entries.

COWBOYS IN PRINT: One signed paperback copy of Long Tall Drink, the extended edition. Open to worldwide entries.

COWBOYS IN PENCIL: One original 8” x 10” graphite pencil artwork by yours truly. The finished artwork will be revealed on the last stop of the tour on Tuesday, June 3. Entries are limited to US and Canada residents only.

What do you have to do to win? Just answer one or both of these questions in the comments section below:

1 – Who is your favorite cowboy of all time—fictional or real, past or present? Mine is Clint Eastwood as “Blondie” from The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly movies. ;-)

2 – Give me your best guess on what the pencil drawing is of—cowboys are a given so you’ll have to be a bit more creative. ;-)

Don’t forget to leave your email address too! Contest closes at midnight Pacific Time, on June 4th. Winners will be drawn randomly on Thursday, June 5th.

32 comments:

I love the Clint Eastwood cowboy movies but my favourite is John Wayne as Rooster Cogburn in True Grit.Worst is Clint Eastwood singing 'I talk to the trees' in Paint your Wagon *cringe* lolI'm International so I can't win the drawing , but I think it's Clint Eastwood with cigar and poncho !Irene

Clint Eastwood as the Pale Rider. I love that movie! I also loved The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, too. So much so that I wore out my VHS copy. I'd love to see a pencil drawing of two cowboys resting shoulder to shoulder. Comradely, but with a hint of more. That's a best guess based on the sorta books you like to write and what I like to read. :D

Antonio Banderas - Desperado/Once Upon a Time in Mexico (can I also mention Zorro) - a good actor/sense of hurmour/handsome/Spanish/penetrating brown eyes - and he is Puss in Boots :-) For the pencil drawing I can see one cowboy on his horse meandering back to a fenced corral, looking up grinning/smiling at another cowboy who is resting back against the wooden corral fencing, hat tipped back and staring heatedly back at the rider.

Aw, hell, now I'm thinking about the Simpsons' version of PAINT YOUR WAGON. The animated parody of Lee Marvin singing "Gonna paint your wagon, gonna paint it fine/I'm gonna use oil-based paint because the wood is pine" is one of my favorite cowboy guys, for sure!

I agree with most of the others, for cowboy movies it has to be John Wayne or Clint Eastwood, but then again it's hard to go past a young Robert Redford & Paul Newman.I think the drawing is the a view of the guys together from the back, leaning on a fence looking over the corrals.Thank you.jenniesullivan834@yahoo.com.au

esseboo@yahoo.comMan this is a really hard decision. Everyone picks John Wayne or Clint Eastwood, but when I think of cowboys they do not really play a cowboy...Kurt Russell, Sam Elliot, Val Kilmer: Tombstone, Gene Wilder: Blazzing Saddles, Tom Selec: Quiggly Down Under.I think the picture is of a lone cowboy and his horse. He has the saddle off leaning against it and the horse with his hat down over his eyes.